Eye-on-Retail Daily Tipsheet Archives

Alibaba sets new Singles Day record with more than $30.8 billion in sales in 24 hours at CNBC. “In Chinese currency terms, GMV totaled 213.5 billion yuan, easily beating last year’s figure of 168.2 billion yuan and representing a nearly 27 percent year-on-year rise. That was, however, smaller than the 39 percent year-on-year growth recorded in 2017.”Read more

Wegmans has highest ‘societal ROI’ at PR Week. “Societal ROI looks at three broad areas: ethical stewardship, civic minds, and visible values. Based on that criteria, Wegmans came out on top, followed by Patagonia, UPS, Aldi, and Microsoft. The index’s data was taken from Harris Poll’s 2018 Reputation Quotient.”Tiered subs.

Walgreens cuts manager bonuses following employee benefit changes by Lisa Schencker at Chicago Tribune. “Walgreens told managers about the cuts to their bonuses in late October, according to sources familiar with the situation…bonuses were much lower than what store managers typically receive and expected to get, sources said.”Tiered subs.

Snap’s former No. 2 exec Imran Khan is building an online shopping startup by Kurt Wagner at Recode. “Khan, who is founder and CEO of the new venture, has a small team of a half-dozen employees working on the project, and just hired Dollar Shave Club’s VP of Engineering Jason Bosco to run engineering.”Read more

Latest Porch partnership teams home services company with eBay to give shoppers a helping hand by Kurt Schlosser at TechCrunch. “eBay is also partnering with New York-based Handy and Boston-based InstallerNet, which offer some of the same services.”Read more

Big Food Encounters Familiar Challenges in Pet-Food Aisle by Annie Gasparro at Wall Street Journal. “Spending on pet food rose 30% per U.S. household between 2006 and 2010, according to Nielsen…But from 2010 to 2017, spending on pet food rose just 5%, according to Nielsen. Many younger people who had put off children and homeownership are reaching those milestones now.”WSJ subs.

Australian woman who allegedly contaminated batches of strawberries with needles has been accused of acting out of spite by Zamira Rahim at The Independent. “Prosecutors are alleging that My Ut Trinh was “motivated by spite or revenge” and retaliated over a workplace grievance by placing needles in fruit.”Read more

Walmart Narrows Price Gap With Amazon and Has Lowest Baby Prices by Spencer Soper & Matthew Boyle at Bloomberg. “Online prices for almost 50,000 exactly-matched products were an average of 2.3 percent more expensive at Walmart than Amazon in a three-month period ending in June, according to price analytics firm Profitero…That’s narrower than the 3 percent price difference between them in a similar study the firm conducted in the third quarter of 2017.”Tiered subs.

Inside the lab where Impossible Foods makes its plant-based “blood” by Adele Peters at Fast Company. “We know that meat lovers do not love the fact that their meat comes from an animal, essentially zero meat lovers, and we’ve done tons of research on this,” Brown says. “It’s just something that they’re willing to live with.”Read more

Khloe Kardashian “Basically Bought Everything” at CVS Store to Help Firefighters in Calabasas at E Online. “I know the brave men and women are working so hard, tirelessly, for all of us would greatly appreciate it,” Khloe said in her story. “Just do whatever you can, even if it’s one bottle of water, one container of eye drops, one granola bar, anything…”Read more

Black couple files $4 Million lawsuit against Costco after white manager said they ‘fit the bill’ of other shoplifters at Newsweek.Read more

Ellen DeGeneres, Kendall and Kylie Jenner, Lead Walmart’s Celebrity Collaborations for the Holidays by Tim Chan at Variety. “And, just in time for Thanksgiving, Patti LaBelle’s line of baked goods (think pumpkin pie and caramel cake) is now available for online grocery pickup.”Read more

Pabst says MillerCoors is trying to put it out of business by Ivan Moreno at AP/Yahoo. “The case has high stakes for Pabst, whose lawyers argue that the company’s very existence relies on the partnership with Chicago-based MillerCoors, which produces, packages and ships nearly all its products.”Read more

Tipsheet Extra Stories

Report: In the last 12 months, 93% of stolen credit cards had the new chip technology

Walton Family Foundation gifts $23.7 million to University of Arkansas